JJ Abrams's reboot of the long-running science fiction franchise has emerged like a gleaming newborn, energised and ready to boldly head off once again where no one has gone before. That's the verdict of the overwhelming majority of critics on Star Trek, which has also been a hit at the US box office, where it achieved the second biggest opening of the year at the weekend.

Featuring an all-new cast of twenty- and thirtysomething actors in the iconic roles of Kirk, Spock, McCoy et al, this is a two-hour interplanetary rodeo ride whose only pauses come in the form of perfectly-timed and astutely-pitched comic interludes. It's charming, good-natured and pleasingly boisterous. And while there are many more plot holes than black holes on screen, nobody seems to mind much because the whole thing hangs together so well.

Star Trek begins with a terrifying attack by rogue Romulans who – it later emerges – have travelled back in time to exact vengeance on the human-led federation following the destruction of their home planet. James T Kirk's father successfully pilots a stricken ship to safety, saving his newborn son and 800 occupants, but dies in the process. This sparks off an alternate reality in which Kirk (Chris Pine) is not a fast-rising Starfleet cadet, but a wisecracking rebel without a cause, slumming his life away in Idaho bars without the positive influence of his dad.

Fortunately (ahem) the Starfleet academy is located nearby, and Kirk is encouraged to enlist by the venerable Captain Pike, who served with his father and recognises the same maverick spirit in his son. Meanwhile, a young Spock (Zachary Quinto) is shown as a youthful prodigy, passing exams with flying colours but facing prejudice for being mixed-race. When the two eventually arrive on screen together, they are about as far from being amicable as you can get, and it's their path towards friendship which forms the backbone of Star Trek's enjoyable narrative arc.

"You want bromance? I'll give you bromance - the greatest of them all," declares the Guardian's own Peter Bradshaw in a rare five-star review. "It's the bromance that flowers in this wildly exciting and enjoyable summer action movie, about the manly relationship between a mercurially talented starship commander and his mixed-race first officer.

"The story of Kirk and Spock is brought thrillingly back to life by a new first generation: Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto, who give inspired, utterly unselfconscious and lovable performances, with power, passion and some cracking comic timing. It's a film in which my chief emotion was a kind of grinning embarrassment at enjoying it all quite so much."

"This is a grand success – perhaps a new populist benchmark in what to do with a flagging franchise, and a witty, light-on-its-feet prequel which makes instant toast of X-Men Origins: Wolverine," reckons the Telegraph's Tim Robey. "May it live long and prosper, by which we mean, sequels, soon, please."

There is the odd naysayer, however, notably Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times, who refuses to be swayed by a film whose science he feels is fundamentally flawed and which, he believes, is more about setting up sequels than delivering satisfying standalone entertainment.

"I understand the Star Trek science has never been intended as plausible," he writes. "I understand this is not science fiction but an Ark movie using a starship. I understand that the character types are as familiar as your favourite slippers. But the franchise has become much of a muchness. The new movie essentially intends to reboot the franchise with younger characters and carry on as before. The movie deals with narrative housekeeping.

"Perhaps the next one will engage these characters in a more challenging and devious story, one more about testing their personalities than re-establishing them. In the meantime, you want space opera, you got it."

Ebert certainly has a point, but for me there is nothing wrong with a well-made origins story, and nothing like it to stir an audience's interest in iconic characters. Star Trek breathes fresh air into the lungs of the original crew of the Enterprise with no small degree of verve and skill. It's the sort of dramatic reinvention which makes you wonder if the Star Wars franchise might one day be radically revived if George Lucas ever decides to stop pillaging people's childhoods. I even found myself inwardly cheering Leonard Nimoy's magnanimous, understated performance as the elder Spock, who arrives from the future just in time to help restore some necessary order to a Star Trek universe ripped wonderfully asunder. And I've never been a particular fan of the franchise.

But perhaps you disagree? Did Abrams's revival engage your warp drive? Or did these impudent upstarts make you long for the return of those erstwhile contributors to the Enterprise captain's log, William Shatner and Patrick Stewart? Do let us know by posting your comments below.

Jeremy Kay: JJ Abrams's new Enterprise crew had the pedigree to score the second-biggest opening of 2009 in the US. More importantly, with its good reviews and great word of mouth, it might just have the legs to run and run